1. Power and Violence in Families
Chapter 12
Power and Violence in Families

2. Chapter Outline What is Power? Classical Perspectives on Marital Power
Current Research on Couple Power
Power Politics versus Freely Cooperative Relationships
Family Violence
Gender and Intimate Partner Violence

3. Chapter Outline Violence Against Children-Child Maltreatment
Sibling Violence
Child-to-Parent Violence
Stopping Family Violence

4. Power Power is the ability to exercise one’s will.
Personal power or autonomy – power exercised over oneself
Social power – the ability of people to exercise their wills over the wills of others
Parental power – power between parents and children
Marital power – power between married partners

5. Six Bases of Power
Coercive power – based on dominant partner’s ability to punish partner with psychological, emotional, or physical abuse
Reward power – based on ability to give material or nonmaterial gifts and favors

6. Six Bases of Power
Expert power – stems from dominant partner’s superior judgment, knowledge or ability
Informational power – based on the persuasive content of what the dominant partner tells another individual

7. Six Bases of Power
Referent power – based on less dominant partner’s emotional identification with the dominant partner
Legitimate power – based on individual’s ability to claim authority

8. Bases of Social Power as Applied to the Family

9. Classical Perspectives on Marital Power
Research on marital power began in the 1950s.
Today, research in this area is highly politicized.

10. The Resource Hypothesis
Spouse with more resources has more power in the marriage
Focuses on background characteristics and doesn’t consider how partners interact
Explains marital power only when there is no overriding egalitarian or patriarchal norm

11. Resources and Gender
Power-granting resources are socially structured by gender and hence unevenly distributed in heterosexual relationships.
Although more couples today are moving toward equal, or egalitarian relationships, research continues to support Gillespie’s insight that American marriages are not yet fully equal

12. Resources in Cultural Context
Perspective that resources are not effective in conferring marital power in traditional societies that legitimate male dominance with a patriarchal norm.
When traditional norms of male authority are strong, husbands will likely dominate regardless of the partners’ personal resources.

13. Current Research on Couple Power
Current research measures couple power in the following four ways:
Decision Making
Division of Labor
Allocation of Money
Ability to Influence

14. Generations and Power
How mothers and fathers spend their time, 1965 and 2011: Average number of hours per week spent on…

15. This family is having breakfast in a household where roles may be somewhat differentiated by gender. Working for wages or even outearning a husband are resources that enhance a wife's conjugal power. However, she still may not be a fully equal partner (Teachman 2010). In this photo, is mom standing so that she can more readily serve whoever might need something?

16. Diversity and Marital Power
Because the United States is a pluralistic society, we expect to find varied visions and enactments of marital power.
Egalitarian Unions
Gender-Modified Egalitarian Unions
Neotraditional Unions
Immigration and Marital Power

17. Power Politics Versus Freely Cooperative Relationships
Power asymmetry often characterizes dissatisfied couples
Supportive partners avoid power politics.

18. Developing a Freely Cooperative Relationship
Partners who see themselves as mutually respected, equally committed, and listened to when they raise concerns are more likely to see their relationship as egalitarian and are more satisfied overall with their relationship.
Changing power patterns can be difficult.

19. Family Violence
The use of physical violence to gain or demonstrate power in a family relationship has occurred throughout history, but only in the last 50 years has violence been labeled a social problem.
Intimate Partner Violence: Spouses, ex-spouses, and current or former boyfriends or girlfriends, including same-sex partners, are considered intimate partners.

20. Intimate Partner Violence Nonfatal Victimization Rates, by sex,1993–2010

21. The Incidence of Intimate Partner Violence
Intimate Partner Violence has declined significantly in recent decades.
Family violence still makes up 11% of all violence and 1/3 of all police recorded violence.

22. Correlates of Family Violence
Cohabitating couples have more IPV.
Those who are exposed to family violence in childhood are more likely than other to abuse their own children and spouses.
Stress is another contributing factor.

23. Gender and Intimate Partner Violence
There are conflicting findings about whether IPV is asymmetrical (with men abusing women) or symmetrical (with both parties contributing equally.
Evidence suggests that IPV by women is largely in self-defense.

24. Research on Intimate Partner Violence
Situational Couple Violence
Mutual violence between partners that often occurs in conjunction with a specific argument
Involves fewer instances, is not likely to escalate, and tends to be less severe
Intimate Terrorism
Abuse that is almost entirely male and that is oriented to controlling the partner through fear and intimidation

25. Two Forms of IPV—Intimate Terrorism Versus Situational Couple Violence

26. Intimate terrorism and the cycle of violence

27. Facts about Families: Signs of Intimate Terrorism
There are clear signs of Intimate Terrorism.
Dominance
Humiliation
Isolation
Threats
Intimidation
There are clear signs about commitment to change as well.

28. Power and Control Wheel: Behaviors Some Male Partners Use for Power and Control

29. Why Do Intimate Terrorists Do It?
Attempt to compensate for feelings of powerlessness or inadequacy
Attempt to maintain control over partners trying to become independent of the relationship

30. Why Do Victims Continue to Live With It?
Fear
Cultural norms – women encouraged to put up with abuse
Love
Economic dependence

31. Why Do Victims Continue to Live With It?
Hopes for change
Belief that it’s a woman’s responsibility to keep a relationship from failing
Childhood experiences with domestic violence
Low self-esteem

32. Conceptual Model of Abused Women’s Stay/Leave Decision-Making Process

33. Violence Against Children
Child maltreatment: covers both abuse and neglect
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act defines child abuse and neglect as the “physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, or negligent treatment of a child under the age of 18 by a person who is responsible for the child’s welfare…”

34. Violence Against Children
Child Abuse: overt acts of aggression
Child Neglect: includes acts of omission, failing to provide adequate physical or emotional care
Data from 1992 to 2007 show a 52% decline in physical abuse.
Fatalities of children from abuse and neglect increased 15% from 2006 to 2007.

35. Violence Against Children
Emotional child abuse or neglect: involves a parent’s being overly harsh and critical, failing to provide guidance, or being uninterested in a child’s needs
Sexual Abuse: a child’s being forced, tricked, or coerced, by an older person, into sexual behavior for the purposes of sexual gratification or financial gain
Incest: sexual relations between related individuals

36. Risk Factors For Child Abuse
A belief in physical punishment
Parents who have unrealistic expectations about what the child is capable of
Parents who abuse were often abused or neglected as children.
Parental stress and feelings of helplessness

37. Child-to-Parent Violence
Relative little research in this area
Adolescent boys are the most frequent perpetrators, with their growth in size and strength associated with increases in violence.
Overly permissive parents and those who abandon their authority in response to the violence tend to see more of it.

38. Stopping Family Violence
Micro, or Relationship Approaches
Macro, or Structural Approaches

39. Stopping Relationship Violence
Separating Victim from Perpetrator
A network of shelters for battered women provides a woman and her children with temporary housing, food, and clothing to alleviate the problems of economic dependency.
They also provide counseling, guidance in attaining employment, and legal assistance.

40. Stopping Relationship Violence
The Criminal Justice Response
Little legal protection for battered women in the past.
Laws have changed to make arrests for domestic violence more feasible, and some states have policies that mandate arrest in certain situations.
A literal reading of mandatory arrest law has resulted in the arrest of victims.
The drop in male homicide rate is attributed to the greater availability of options for abused women.

41. Stopping Relationship Violence
The Therapeutic Approach
Approximately 25% of male abusers engage in repeat intimate partner violence. It is difficult to evaluate the success of intervention programs because of design problems, low response rates, and high dropout rates.
Couples’ therapy programs are somewhat controversial because they proceed from the premise that a couple’s staying together without violence after an abusive past is possible.

42. Macro, or Structural Approach
A macro approach notes the social, cultural, and economic context of family violence, then provides programs and services to help reduce or otherwise address it.
Unfortunately, statewide, and regional budget cuts, along with increasing difficulty of competition for donor funding have resulted in program closings.